SEVENTY per cent of voters want medical staff to face jail if they cover up poor care within the NHS.

An exclusive poll for the Sunday Express reveals overwhelming support for proposals to introduce new laws in the wake of the ­Stafford Hospital scandal.

More than three quarters of ­voters have backed demands by relatives who lost loved ones for NHS boss Sir David Nicholson to quit.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt yesterday condemned as “absolutely disgraceful” the fact that not a single nurse or doctor had been held to account for appalling standards of care that led to the deaths of up to 1,200 patients at the hospital between 2005 and 2008.

His comments come in the wake of the report by Robert Francis QC that recommend a new “duty of candour” and a criminal offence for health workers who fail to blow the whistle on bad practice.

Patients have called for Sir David, now chief executive of the NHS, to “carry the can” for failures at Stafford and quit his £270,000 post. Sir David was formerly chief executive of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust, which ran the hospital.

He has refused to go, saying he is “not ashamed” to stay in his post.

In a VisionCritical poll of more than 2,000 people, conducted on Thursday and Friday, 76 per cent of voters backed calls for Sir David to go.

More than half of voters, 51 per cent, said Sir David should go while a further 25 per cent said he should “probably” consider his position.

In contrast only 10 per cent believed he should “probably” stay on and just one per cent of those polled said he should stay.

Stafford is the latest in a series of scandals to rock public confidence in key British institutions.

However, the public retain faith in the overall NHS, with 69 per cent saying they still put their trust in its standards of care.

Three-quarters of those polled said RBS boss Stephen ­Hester should quit after the state-backed bank was fined £390million for its part in the Libor fixing ­scandal.

Trust also remained high for the BBC, despite the Jimmy Savile scandal, with 59 per cent backing the corporation. However 34 per cent said they had lost all or some of their faith in the organisation.

A series of scandals exposed within the police, including the criminal acceptance of payments for information from the press, has shaken the faith of 27 per cent of voters in the force but 70 per cent have retained trust.

The high street bank still commands the trust of 62 per cent of us but 34 per cent have lost total or some trust in their own bank.

However, three-quarters of those polled said RBS boss Stephen ­Hester should quit after the state-backed bank was fined £390million for its part in the Libor fixing ­scandal.

The Sunday Express trust poll revealed a near collapse in public confidence in Parliament in the wake of the MPs’ expenses scandal and former Energy Secretary Chris Huhne’s belated guilty plea for ­perverting the course of justice over a 10-year-old driving offence.

Eighty per cent of those polled have lost all or some faith in MPs, with almost half, 43 per cent, saying they now “completely distrusted” MPs. Six per cent were unsure.

More than half of voters, 61 per cent, said they completely or partly distrusted David Cameron, while 30 per cent were keeping the faith.

Ed Miliband was almost on a par with the Prime Minister, 59 per cent had trust issues with the Labour leader while 26 per cent said they trusted him.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who last year issued a public apology for the Lib Dems U-turn on tuition fees, has lost all or some of the support of 68 per cent of voters while 21 per cent still trust him.